Bahrain WEC: Hartley beats Kobayashi to pole in Toyota 1-2
Brendon Hartley beat Kamui Kobayashi to pole position as Toyota locked out the front row for this weekend's Bahrain 6 Hours round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Hartley claimed his first pole of the Hypercar era with a 1m47.049s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
That compared with the 1m47.447s from Kamui Kobayashi, who had topped the times in the second and third sessions of free practice in the #7 Toyota.
Both Toyotas set only one timed lap around a circuit known for its high tyre wear to save their allocation of Michelin rubber for the race.
"It's been a long time coming," said Hartley, who last claimed pole in the WEC at the Fuji round of the 2019/20 series when qualifying was an aggregate of the times of two drivers.
"It was close at Monza and I felt like I could have had the pole at Le Mans until I got traffic at the end of the lap.
"I made a mistake on my qually sim in FP3 here, so I built into the lap and had a really good sector three."
Andre Negrao was less than a second off the pace of the pole-winning Toyota aboard the solo Alpine A480-Gibson. The Brazilian ended up on a 1m48.003s set on his second flying lap, but had a quicker time deleted for a track limits infringement.
Tom Blomqvist claimed LMP2 pole for the JOTA team, which had led the way in each of the three practice session with its pair of Oreca 07 Gibsons.
He was quickest in the #28 Oreca on his first run courtesy of a 1m49.932s and then improved to a 1m49.885s after going out on for a second shot on a new set of tyres.
United Autosports driver Filipe Albuquerque trailed Blomqvist by half a second after the first runs, but ended up only a tenth shy of the pole with a 1m49.994s on a new set of tyres.
The second JOTA car ended up third in Antonio Felix da Costa's hands on 1m50.198s.
Loic Duval was was the quickest of the Pro/Am runners in fourth position aboard the TDS-run Realteam Oreca.
Porsche 1-2 in GTE Pro
#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Kevin Estre, Neel Jani
Photo by: Porsche Motorsport
Porsche driver Kevin Estre claimed his third GTE Pro pole of the season by just three hundredths of a second from teammate Gianmaria Bruni.
Estre's 1m56.144s aboard the #92 Porsche 911 RSR compared with Bruni's 1m56.178s in the second of the Manthey-run cars.
Both Porsche drivers stayed out for a second lap but failed to improve.
Ferrari edged closer to Porsche than in free practice, Miguel Molina just shading Alessandro Pier Guidi.
Molina posted a 1m57.327s on his first flying lap in his AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. That compared with the 1m57.573s set by Pier Guidi on his second lap in the championship-leading Ferrari.
Rino Mastronardi took GTE Am qualifying honours after being brought into the Iron Lynx WEC line-up for Bahrain.
The 2021 European Le Mans Series GTE champion with the Italian team took the pole ahead of Aston Martin driver Paul Dalla Lana.
Mastronardi set a 1m58.918s on his second lap, after losing his first to a track limits violation, which compared with Dalla Lana's 1m59.331s.
The six-hour race, the first of two back-to-back rounds at the Bahrain International Circuit that conclude the 2021 WEC, starts at 11am local time on Saturday.
The WEC 6 Hours of Bahrain will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv this Saturday. Click here for more information.
Bahrain 6 Hours - Qualifying results (Hypercar and LMP2):
GTE results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 92 |  Kevin Estre  Neel Jani | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'56.144 | |
| 2 | 91 |  Gianmaria Bruni  Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'56.178 | 0.034 |
| 3 | 52 |  Daniel Serra  Miguel Molina | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.327 | 1.183 |
| 4 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi  James Calado | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.573 | 1.429 |
| 5 | 60 | Rino Mastronardi Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'58.687 | 2.543 |
| 6 | 98 |  Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.331 | 3.187 |
| 7 | 56 |  Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.404 | 3.260 |
| 8 | 47 | Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.410 | 3.266 |
| 9 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.534 | 3.390 |
| 10 | 33 |  Ben Keating  Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.538 | 3.394 |
| 11 | 88 |  Khaled Al Qubaisi  Adrien de Leener Julien Andlauer | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.923 | 3.779 |
| 12 | 83 | François Perrodo  Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.263 | 4.119 |
| 13 | 77 |  Christian Ried  Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.294 | 4.150 |
| 14 | 777 |  Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.300 | 4.156 |
| 15 | 85 | Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Katherine Legge | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.457 | 4.313 |
| 16 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.939 | 4.795 |
| 17 | 57 | Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.877 | 5.733 |
| View full results | ||||||
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